Re[2]: [Leica] Trip to Cuba, what to take?

["Uwe Mader" <uwe_mader@cclink.metrodesk.metrotor.on.ca>]

     I visited Cuba in October 1996.  I stayed at a resort outside of 
Santiago.  The resort offered many day trips such as to Santiago as well as a 
tour of nearby bat caves.  We took the Santiago tour which included a visit of 
the cemetery in Santiago, including Jose Marti's tomb, the former Baccardi 
factory, a cigar factory, the fort at the entrance to the port of Santiago, and 
eventually a short visit of Santiago itself.  IMHO, photographically speaking 
the fort was the best, but even here we only had about half an hour to wander 
about.  Unfortunately I did not spend much time with the cigar rollers in the 
cigar factory as I was on a cigar purchasing mission.  Outside the rum factory 
and the cigar factory there were photo opportunities of the streetscape and 
locals, you just could not wander far because of time constraints.  At the end 
of the tour we were given one hour to wander Santiago by ourselves.  The only 
problem with this was that you were constantly hounded for money, pens, paper 
whatsoever by the locals.  We did manage to get atop a roof top restaurant which
provided some good photos.  

Another possibility for photos was the apres dinner shows that they had at the 
resort.  One evening they brought the performers from the Tropicana in Santiago 
(Havana also has one of these).  The only problem here was the slow synch speed 
of the M camera's.  

As to gear I brought a Contax T, an M3, a 35 f2.8 Summaron (with eyes), a 50 
Summicron, a 90 f2.8 Tele-Elmarit, and a 135 f4.5 Hektor. Flash was a Metz 32 CT
7. The 35 mm got the most use, the 50 mm the next most, the 135 mm I think I 
used once, and the 90 mm was good for the Tropicana night shots.  Film was Kodak
Gold 100 and Ilford Delta 100.  Filter for the Delta was a Leitz 1 yellow 
filter.  Personally, I would not bother with darker filters as my pictures 
provide more than enough colour separation between clouds and sky.  


Uwe Mader
______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Re: [Leica] Trip to Cuba, what to take?
Author:  leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us at MTMETM04
Date:    7/8/98 2:11 PM


Dear LUG-gers
     
I have no doubt several of your US senators would want my hide ( and frankly 
I could not care less), but I am contemplating a 13 day trip to Cuba, end of 
the year.
     
Have any of you esteemed LUG-gers been there? Any tips? Like: what film ( I 
like Fuji films, oeps, another word of treason against the motherland of the 
yellow/red box) to take, lenses, precautions. What places to visit etc. Much 
obliged!
     
Sander, Amsterdam, Holland
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Sander van Hulsenbeek
at work: sander.vanhulsenbeek@solvay.com 
at home: vanhulsenbeek@wxs.nl
and also: http://home.wxs.nl/~sanderva/home.html